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ALL ABOARD THE LONDON BUS

Name: ALL ABOARD THE LONDON BUS
Author: Patty Toht
ISBN: 978-1-84780-857-8

by Patty Toht ; illustrated by Sam Usher ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 31, 2017

A fun if slightly predictable introduction to the famous city.

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A white family of four takes a tourist trip around London.

All the famous sights are visited on the big red double-decker bus: the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the London Eye, the River Thames, Trafalgar Square, Speaker’s Corner, the Underground, Piccadilly Circus, the British Museum, St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Tate Modern, the Globe theater, Tower Bridge, and the Tower of London. Each spread consists of attractive pen-and-watercolor illustrations of the places visited on the tour, with verse, mostly rhyming couplets, in styles well-suited to each attraction. The spread about the Thames shows a bird’s-eye view of the city with evocative text twisting and winding along the contours of the famous river. A similarly lofty view of Trafalgar Square incorporates a “seek and find” feature encouraging readers to look for 10 pigeons, 9 ladies, 8 performers, and so on. The views of the various features of the city are varied and interesting, and multiracial crowds are depicted in several of the images. A detailed compendium of facts about the buildings and features depicted is included at the end.

A fun if slightly predictable introduction to the famous city. (Informational picture book. 6-10)

Pub Date: May 31, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-84780-857-8

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Frances Lincoln

Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017

Categories:

CHILDREN'S POETRY

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WHAT YOU NEED TO BE WARM

by Neil Gaiman ; illustrated by Various ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 31, 2023

No substitute for blankets or shelter, but perhaps a way of securing some warmth for those in need.

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Gaiman’s free-verse meditation on coming in from, or at least temporarily fending off, the cold is accompanied by artwork from 13 illustrators.

An ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the author put out a social media appeal in 2019 asking people about their memories of warmth; the result is this picture book, whose proceeds will go to the UNHCR. For many refugees and other displaced persons, Gaiman writes, “food and friends, / home, a bed, even a blanket, / become just memories.” Here he gathers images that signify warmth, from waking in a bed “burrowed beneath blankets / and comforters” to simply holding a baked potato or being offered a scarf. Using palettes limited to black and the warm orange in which most of the text is printed, an international slate of illustrators give these images visual form, and 12 of the 13 add comments about their intentions or responses. The war in Ukraine is on the minds of Pam Smy and Bagram Ibatoulline, while Majid Adin recalls his time as a refugee in France’s “Calais jungle” camp. “You have the right to be here,” the poet concludes, which may give some comfort to those facing the cold winds of public opinion in too many of the places where refugees fetch up. The characters depicted are diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

No substitute for blankets or shelter, but perhaps a way of securing some warmth for those in need. (Picture book. 6-9)

Pub Date: Oct. 31, 2023

ISBN: 9780063358089

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: July 26, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S POETRY | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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PIRATE STEW
by Neil Gaiman ; illustrated by Chris Riddell

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CINNAMON
by Neil Gaiman ; illustrated by Divya Srinivasan

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ODD AND THE FROST GIANTS
by Neil Gaiman ; illustrated by Chris Riddell

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IN PRAISE OF MYSTERY

by Ada Limón ; illustrated by Peter Sís ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2024

A luminous call to think about what is and to envision what might be.

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In U.S. Poet Laureate Limón’s debut picture book, soaring images and lyrics invite contemplation of life’s wonders—on Earth and perhaps, tantalizingly, elsewhere.

“O second moon,” writes Limón, “we, too, are made / of water, // of vast and beckoning seas.” In visual responses to a poem that will be carried by NASA’s Europa Clipper, a probe scheduled for launch in October 2024 and designed to check Jupiter’s ice-covered ocean moon for possible signs of life, Sís offers flowing glimpses of earthly birds and whales, of heavenly bodies lit with benevolent smiles, and a small light-skinned space traveler flying between worlds in a vessel held aloft by a giant book. Following the undulations of the poet’s cadence, falling raindrops give way to shimmering splashes, then to a climactic fiery vision reminiscent of Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night before finishing with mirrored human figures made of stars. Visual images evocative of the tree of life presage what Límon writes in her afterword: that her poem is as much about “our own precious planet” as it is about what may lie in wait for us to discover on others. “We, too, are made of wonders, of great / and ordinary loves, // of small invisible worlds, // of a need to call out through the dark.”

A luminous call to think about what is and to envision what might be. (Picture book. 7-10)